Son of Delaware courthouse shooter sentenced to six months behind bars

New details have emerged about David Matusiewicz, son of the New Castle County Courthouse shooter during a probation revocation hearing.

The hearing put in perspective some of the time spent by Matusiewcz family in the time leading up to the February 11th shooting.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf presented multiple instances where Matusiewicz had violated his supervised probation since being released from prison in 2012.

Matusiewicz pleaded no contest to the violations, and Chief Judge Gregory Sleet of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, sentenced him to six months in prison followed by four years of supervised release. He was also ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. The time he’s already served will be counted.

Upon being released, he will not be allowed to have contact with his three daughters or be allowed to travel to the state of Delaware. He will have to obtain employment within 60 days and perform 20 hours of community service. He will also have to wear a GPS monitoring system if he travels outside of his south Texas residence.

Matusiewicz has been a part of the initial investigation following the murder of his ex-wife Christine Belford and her friend Laura Mulford. The two women were gunned down by his father, Thomas at the New Castle County Courthouse before he fired on courthouse police, and turned the gun on himself.

David Matusiewicz, who had left his father that morning and gone to the courtroom, was arrested after the shooting on charges that he violated probation.

Matusiewicz had been living with his parents in Texas on a supervised probation after serving three years in prison for kidnapping his three daughters. According to Wolf, he was not supposed to be living with his parents, since his mother, Lenore Matusiewicz, was his co-conspirator in the 2007 kidnapping.

Wolf also noted that he had put in two requests in late 2012 to travel to New Jersey to visit family. Both of those were denied based on how close it would be to the state of Delaware where his ex-wife and three children resided.

Shortly after those requests, Matusiewicz quit his job as a waiter and told his probation officer he was trying to get his optometry license in Texas. He then filled for disability.

With no income coming in, Matusiewicz put in a request to have his child support reduced to “zero” during phone mediation with his ex-wife. That prompted the Feb. 11 child support hearing in Delaware.

Matusiewicz filed a travel request and was granted permission to spend the night at a family member’s house in New Jersey and attend the child support hearing in Delaware.

According to Wolf, Matusiewicz did not indicate that his parents were accompanying him on the trip.

The Matusiewicz family traveled in two vehicles, a Honda Civic and a Honda CRV. Thomas drove alone from Texas in the Civic left it at a friends house in Elkton, Maryland the day before the court hearing. Thomas and David drove in the CRV to the courthouse.  Later, police searched both vehicles and found ammunition, a bullet proof vest, handcuffs and a cattle prod in the Honda Civic.  The CRV did not contain any weapons.

Matusiewicz and his father took the other vehicle to the child support hearing. 

A Texas search warrant following the shooting revealed nearly a dozen guns and several rounds of ammunition, which included loaded magazines on the Matusiewicz property.

Wolf argued that the multiple probation violations create a void of trust between the probation office and Matusiewicz.

During sentencing, Judge Sleet said he hoped the revocation of the supervised release will “motivate” Matusiewicz to start following his supervised probation orders.

Matusiewicz’s attorneys have 14 days to file an appeal of the decision.  Matusiewcz’s mother, who had attended the other hearings for her son, did not appear in court Tuesday.